The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1887-02-25
WHOSE VICTORY?

1t is positively amusing to read Inc
Loyal League press now a-days, and
note how desperately it tries 10 hide its
chagrin over the emasculation of the
bill" Such a measure eight or ten
years ago would have been enough to
keep the Alta Club and every Leagner
in the Territory drunk for month, or
until the whisky was all consumed, and
there was no intoxicating virtue left in
coal oil and benzine. But to-day the
bill is a sickener. In all conscience it is
bad enough to suit the vicious and mali
cious purposes of the acknowledgement
and greedy. Congress has never been
guilty of really worse legislation the bill
being infamous in its inception, and
scoundrelly in several of its provisions,
besides being all wrong in theory and
principle. But it is so much milder
than the gang of adventures expected.
has been so greatly modified, and been
deprived of so many of its uglier lea
lures that the Loyal LeagUers are
heartily Disguised with the winters
work, and their newspapers cannot b LIP
showing their disappointment and
chagrin. One day one of these
papers will assume bold front,
and in a brazen effort to show
courage, will praise the bill and
declare that much good will come from
it; the newt day the journal has lost
heart, and will assert that the ball docs
not amount to a hill of beams" will
denounce somebody or some influence
for having emasculated' the measure,
and rant and rave wildly about the
defeat" Another League organ puts
on a cheerfulface, but regrets" that the
bill is not what was expected; says
much can be accomplished under it
though it doesn't go far enough; asserts
that it is a great advance, but fails to
point out wherein. And so it goes,
dependency and disappointment
having supplanted anticipated persecu.
ton and plumber on the part of the
wretched irresPonsibles and adEen-
Venturers.
The plain truth is, the bill is not
what the Leaguers expected. is not
what they wanted, and is little or no
advance as they understand the term.
The Liberals have been out-generaIed
and defeated, and they know it, how
ever much they may protest and pro-
Tess to the contrary. If any have the
right to feel that they have achieved
victory during the winter, they are the
Mormons and not the Loyal Leaguers.
The Congress began the session
with oil before il, which if enacted
into law, would have placed every Nor
mon in the Territory at the mercy of as
vile and unpriDcipIed gang of fellows
as ever plotted and schemed to rob,
plumber and prosecute. With such a
law in operation, and its administration
given into the hands of the class of fell
lows who would naturally have come
to the front, it is questionable if per
son protesting belief in Mormonism or
advocating justice for Mormons, could
have lived in the Territory. Everybody
who refused to join with the mob, and
become enc of the prosecutors and
plundererS, would have been forced, for
protection of person and property, to
remove beyond the reach of the in
famous law That bill passed the
popular branch of Congress almost
without a protest and had il not been
for the personal pride of one man
would have gone through the Senate
with as little thought and consideration
as were bestowed upon it il the House.
Instead of that scoundrelly bill. con-
ceived III wickedness and born in the
idea of wholesale theft, what have we?
Perhaps nothing; possibly law which
while it is bad in principle and ugly in
some of its provisions, closes the door
against the contemplated plumber
and leaves the people in control of
most of their affairs. In some respects
the bill is a really good one, and Ger
tain of its provisions are needed. One
of these is the section which forbids the
putting of wives on the witness stand
and compelling them to testify against
their husbands. This outrage has been
perpetrated here for months by the
pdbIc prosecutor and sustained by the
Judges, in defiance of law and agsins+
morality, decency and the finer feelings
of society. If the bill shall become law.
wives will hereafter be relieved from
the brutal and insulting questioning of
vulgar prosecutors and grand jurors,
and Will not be subject to fines and i'm
prisonment for refusing to tell of things
which of all others should be kept
secret and held sacred. The adulterer
will also be made liable to the severe
punishment which his vile crime de-
serves, and the way will be opened for
the suppression of fornication and
the severe punishment of those who
have hitherto escaped their deserts |